The campaign to evict the Japanese from the Aleutians saw one of the most motley assemblages of troops and vessels ever put together. This was because everything even remotely “top shelf” was needed on the front lines in Guadalcanal and in protecting Atlantic Convoys against U-boats. This left a hash of obsolete old ships– the 1920s “Sugar Boats” had their last operational hurrah in Alaskan waters– and new formations of ground troops including the 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment (later the core of the 10th Mountain Division) and the U.S./Canadian First Special Service Force (later to become the famed Devil’s Brigade in Italy) to carry out this more “sideshow” of a campaign.
An unlikely force sent to help in the liberation of Alaskan Territory was the newly formed Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron THIRTEEN (MTBRon 13) under the command of LCDR James B. Denny, a unit later augmented by the much similar MTBRon 16.
Aleutian Islands Campaign, June 1942 – August 1943. PT Boats lie alongside tender in Attu Harbor in Aleutians, in the background is Consolidated PBY “Catalina” taking off. Photographed by Lieutenant Horace Bristol, July 1943. 80-G-475727 (TR-5219)
These two squadrons were made up of 78-foot plywood Higgins of New Orleans-made PT Boats, each powered by a trio of 1,500shp Packard W-14 M2500 gasoline engines capable of pushing them at 40 knots. Armament was generally four 21″ torpedoes tubes, a single 20mm Oerlikon mount, and two twin .50 cal. machine guns. Other topside armament was fitted as it was “locally acquired.”
MTBRon 13’s PT 76 Womens Bay, Kodiak Island, Alaska NARA
MTBRon 13’s PT 73 Womens Bay, Kodiak Island, Alaska NARA
This beautiful period Kodachrome shows three U.S. Navy PT-boats, likely of MTBron 13, in the Aleutians in June 1943 along seaplane tender USS GILLIS (AVD 12). Note the PBY Catalina to the stern of the tender and the angled Mk 19 torpedo tubes of the Higgins boats– to include a torpedo visible in the uncovered tube. Official USN Photographs (National Archives) 80-G-K-9454 (Color).
The two squadrons participated in the May 1943 Attu Island invasion and in much patrolling but saw very little combat.
Then came the big show: Operation Cottage, which would recapture the island of Kiska and clear out the last of the Emporer’s men from Alaska.
For Cottage, some 80 years ago this month, 11 PTs were attached to Task Force King under RADM Thomas C. Kinkaid.
Of those, five were sent in at 0750 on D-Day for a tour of Vega Bay.
In a diversionary tactic, they were camouflaged with wood to give the impression that large landing parties were aboard.
Caption: PT boats of MTBRON 13 with plywood “troops” in place, ready to masquerade as landing craft in diversionary operations during the Kiska reoccupation. Note torpedo tubes, skiff, and foul weather gear. NH 44304
As noted by Captain Robert J. Bulkley, Jr. in his At Close Quarters:
For a time it appeared that the PTs at last would have some action since it was estimated that the Japanese had 4,000 to 7,000 troops on the island. While the main landings were being made to the north, five PT’s were to join a group of transports in a feint at Vega Point, the southeastern extremity of the island, to draw enemy reserves from the north and prevent concentration of defenses against the main landings. Strips of plywood cut out to resemble the sides of barges surmounted by rows of soldiers’ heads were tacked to the gunwales of the PTs, outboard of the torpedo tubes. The camouflage was crude close-to, but at a little distance gave the PTs the appearance of loaded landing craft.
Lieutenant Commander Denny, in PT 81 (Lt. (jg.) Elbert S. Churchill, USNR), with PT 73 (Lt. (jg.) William R. McQuilkin); PT 76 (Lt. (jg.) Louis R. Fockele, USNR); PT 80 (Lt. (jg.) William G. Jens, USNR); and PT 84 (Lt. (ig.) Joseph A. Sheehan, USNR), left Bird Cape at 0330 on August 15 and entered Vega Bay ahead of the transports at 0715 to begin their demonstration. In a heavy haze, the boats closed within 100 yards of shore and intermittently strafed the beach until 1100. In the afternoon they made several strafing runs in Gertrude Cove, to the north. No matter how close to shore they went, they drew no return fire. That night the boats returned to Constantine Harbor. The landings at Kiska, to the surprise of everyone who took part in them, were entirely unopposed. The enemy had evacuated the island, secretly and completely.
This closed out the PTs’ work in the Far North. The boats ran under their own power to Seattle in early 1944– not an insignificant task– and were transhipped to the Southwest Pacific where it was thought they would be of more use.
Two PT boats were lost in Alaska, neither to combat: PT 28 was wrecked in a storm, at Dora Harbor on 12 Jan. 1943, and PT 219 was damaged beyond repair in a storm, then scrapped, off Attu, in Sep. 1943.
MTBRON 13 and 16 went on to see lots of action at Mios Woendi, Mindoro, and Brunei Bay. As part of Task Unit 70.1.4, they earned the Navy Unit Commendation for action at Mindoro from 15 – 19 December 1944.
Their remaining boats were burned at Samar in November 1945, no longer needed.